Core 400: Civics/American Government

This package includes these 39 items:

Catalog Number	Title	Our Regular Price	Amazon Price*	Core Club Price
400-01	Core 400 Instructor's Guide: Civics/American Government	$85.00		$76.50
410-10	The Institutes of Biblical Law	$39.99	$26.39	$35.99
410-15	Tools of Dominion: The Case Laws of Exodus	$40.00		$36.00
420-10	Basic American Government	$36.00		$32.40
420-15	Black Like Me	$7.99	$7.99	$7.19
420-20	The Dry Divide	$12.95	$10.36	$11.66
420-25	Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men	$48.00	$43.20	$43.20
420-30	Eternity in Their Hearts	$14.99		$13.49
420-35	The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness	$14.95	$10.17	$13.46
420-40	The Jungle	$9.95	$9.95	$8.96
420-45	Lies My Teacher Told Me	$16.00		$14.40
420-50	Never Before in History	$35.00	$34.30	$31.50
420-55	Shadow of the Almighty	$13.99	$12.59	$12.59
420-60	Up From Slavery	$11.00	$9.35	$9.90
420-65	Where the Broken Heart Still Beats	$7.00	$7.00	$6.30
430-10	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	$15.95	$10.85	$14.36
430-13	Belle Prater's Boy	$6.99	$6.99	$6.29
430-16	Best Short Stories of O. Henry	$22.95	$15.61	$20.66
430-19	Bud, Not Buddy	$6.99		$6.29
430-22	The Chosen	$13.95	$10.94	$12.56
430-25	Crazy Lady!	$5.99	$5.99	$5.39
430-28	The Crucible	$13.00	$10.01	$11.70
430-31	The Day They Came to Arrest the Book	$6.50	$6.50	$5.85
430-34	The Giver	$6.99	$6.99	$6.29
430-37	The Grapes of Wrath	$16.00	$10.19	$14.40
430-40	Jacob Have I Loved	$6.99	$6.99	$6.29
430-43	Julie of the Wolves	$5.99	$5.99	$5.39
430-46	Moby-Dick	$13.00	$10.40	$11.70
430-49	My Antonia	$7.95	$7.95	$7.16
430-52	100 Best-Loved Poems	$1.50	$1.50	$1.35
430-55	Our Town	$10.95	$8.58	$9.86
430-58	The Outsiders	$9.99	$9.99	$8.99
430-61	The Portable Poe	$18.00		$16.20
430-64	The Scarlet Letter	$7.00	$7.00	$6.30
430-67	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	$14.95	$11.66	$13.46
430-70	The View from Saturday	$6.99	$6.99	$6.29
430-73	Walden and Civil Disobedience	$12.00	$9.60	$10.80
B200	Binder with Tabs for Core 200 and 400	$18.95		$17.06
RR11	Dating With Integrity	$16.99	$16.49	$15.29
Total Price :		$626.74	$594.44	$564.07
If you are a Core Sonlighter then you can save $30.37 on this package of 39 items rather than buying 31 from Amazon and 8 from Sonlight separately. * Amazon prices last checked on July 4, 2009, 3:15 am

 

You may wish to use this program, with no modification, as the basis for teaching one or more students in 9th through 12th grades for one year. We do not recommend this program for use with students below 11th grade.

Curriculum Overview:
Through the Sonlight^® Core 400 program you will come to understand American civil government as it is today: not only how the government works but why it works as it does. Your study will begin with the cultural and historical background that led to the U.S. Constitution as written. You will examine the Constitution itself. And then you will study how the historical events and social currents of the past two centuries have altered Americans' understanding of the Constitution.

Use the Core 400 program and you will learn what every standard course provides, but you will also discover such fascinating (and disturbing) issues, events and people like these:

• The first president who approved unquestionably unConstitutional conduct to achieve a goal he believed was best for the country and how this precedent affects us today.

• The extremely popular president who, if he were alive today, would almost certainly be tried as a war criminal for the military tactics he approved. His administration also adopted a policy of denying citizens such Constitutional rights as trial by jury and the privilege of habeas corpus. What legacy has his administration left?

• The fundamental Constitutional questions ( other than slavery!) that loomed large behind the War for Southern Independence. The practical implications of that war.

• Which president made mere protest against government policy illegal and punishable by lengthy prison sentences.

And more!

The Core 400 program incorporates Bible study in a way that none of our other programs do. Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law and North's Tools of Dominion: The Case Laws of Exodus lead you to think through issues of civil government from a biblical perspective. What should civil government look like if it were based on biblical principles? The authors present their opinions. The Sonlight^® Instructor's Guide then helps you evaluate their opinions and to think things through for yourself as you meditate on the Scriptures.

In addition to History and Bible, Core 400 also includes a complete, advanced-level American Literature component. To make this part of the Core 400 experience as pleasant as possible, we've interspersed relatively light, but still deeply meaningful stories like the Newbery Honor books Belle Prater's Boy and Crazy Lady! between such standards as The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Notice that Core 400 comes with Literary Analysis and Creative Writing. It offers two Creative Writing assignments, with instructions, each week. The Instructor's Guide helps you to evaluate your literary works' messages, draws your attention to some of the literary techniques the authors use, and offers one writing exercise each week that uses a similar literary technique and one that asks you to interact with the content of the works you are reading.

For maximum benefit, you should plan on doing this program in a context of open discussion and journaling. We have provided large quantities of notes in the Instructor's Guide to help ease the strain, but whether you join with a few other students who can discuss with you the books and issues you are studying, or whether, in a smaller, family context, you commit yourself to discuss the materials, we urge you to invest the hours necessary to interact with other people about what you're reading!

A note about the editions we have chosen:

Since we are focusing this year on classic American literature, you will find that, in the marketplace as a whole, there are a number of different editions of most titles we carry.

Considering that many of the older works are relatively difficult to read, we thought it wise to choose editions with relatively larger print and more white space between lines. Though there may be less expensive editions, ease of reading is paramount.

Students who do the kind of literary analysis we require in the Core 400 program often do better when they are able to mark their texts, highlighting words, phrases, and passages, and noting items of interest that they will want to comment on in their papers. Owning these books really does have its advantages!

Includes Bible, History/Civics, Literature, Biographies & Historical Fiction, Practical Life Skills, and an Instructor's Guide 400-01. No Four-Day alternative available. This is a full program!

Estimated time requirement on a five-day-per-week/36-week schedule for a single student, including Math, Language Arts, and Science: Student: 6-8 hrs/day; Parent: 1-2.5 hrs/day direct involvement, availability for remainder of time.

Have questions? Talk to the real experts in our Sonlight Curriculum Discussion Forums -- other families who are using this very curriculum right now. We have a special forum just for this curriculum level:

• Core 400 Discussion Forum
• Instructor's Guide Samples

Read about the Sonlighters Club benefits you get when you purchase a Core program on our Sonlighters Club page.

More things you should know about our complete Core packages:

• The 7 Remarkable Benefits You'll Get from a Sonlight^® Core Program
• Why do we call it CORE when it doesn't include Language Arts or Math?
• Core Curriculum Scope and Sequence
• Core package Themes by Course Number
• Relative Difficulty Levels of Sonlight's Core Curricula
• How Can I Possibly Use a K Program with a Second Grader? What Makes a Sonlight^® Program Useful for Multiple Grades?